CIS Continues to Confuse the World About Premium Processing and H-1 Filings

With the Spring comes the annual CIS attempts to make something simple as confusing as possible. In its most recent press release about the upcoming April 1 filing period (which it again will illegally stretch into a five day filing period), CIS raises the issue of filing the H-1 case using premium processing and paying them an additional, almost always worthless, $1225 in filing fees.

It cannot be overemphasized that if you file the H-1 with the regular filing fee OR the premium processing fee, you have the IDENTICAL odds of being selected in the lottery. There is no filing fee, filing process, company, attorney or anything else which will increase your odds of being selected. Period.

The only advantage to the premium process is that IF the case is selected, you MAY get a decision by May 15 (well beyond the 15 day decision requirement for premium processing to begin with), but none of this has any impact on whether you are selected under the lottery. That is pure chance so do not let CIS confuse you into paying a lot of money for almost no benefit. Then again, if you are selected under the lottery and for some reason must know if the case will be approved or not as soon as possible, then premium processing might be of some help. But even on that issue we have noticed regularly filed H cases, selected under the lottery, get approvals (and denials!) well before other cases filed under premium processing which were also selected under the lottery (obviously one cannot get an approval or denial unless first selected in the lottery).

Good luck and happy filing!

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